Riding Out the Storms

The battle in the Citizen class has been heating up. Fun texts, emails, and calls. John's buying more carbon stuff and logging some good mileage, Matt's being more secretive about his plots. Matt hasn't raced in a couple years, John's never raced...not counting Mont Du Lac. I'm staying neutral in this...with a gas can next to me in case the track smack fires start to smolder at all ;)

This weekend will be awesome. Heading up to Minneapolis tomorrow night I think. I unfortunately will NOT be racing in the USAC's return to the midwest at Mt. Morris, WI. Too much driving and I need to turn that stress down a little. Mankato will be fun on Sunday. I raced there in 2008 and hopefully it will be similar.

It has been a rediculously stormy summer so far! Finding 2 hour slots of times throughout the day to get in the rides has been tricky. While I've been able to do it, many times its riding half in the rain or wondering if I'm going to get back to my place in time before the monstrous lightning shows get there, but it definintely keeps up my intensity! Nothing like lightning to motivate you to put in some good training efforts!

I rarely get out on the singletrack because of it though. I think the only times I've been on the mountain bike lately have been for the actual race, otherwise its been all Bianchi. Tonight I have a good long dirt ride planned and I'm hoping it wont rain today so I can actually get it in...on dirt!

Race Report: Ponca’s Revenge

I love marathon mountain bike races!!! The last few races have been ok, but I really needed a good solid race again – I got it on Saturday which marked the 3rd event of the Nebraska State Lottery Psycowpath Series held at Ponca State Park, NE. This series gives you an option to race a 3 hour Marathon event along with offering the category XC races. I opted for this over the CAT 2 Open race because I’ve been obsessing about ultra-endurance and marathon racing lately.

I felt like I prepared really well for it. Saturday morning came when the alarm went off at 6am. Google maps showed that I was about 2 hours from the park which gave me plenty of time to get there, relax and get a good warm up in. In the Marathon class there are no age or category breakouts – just run what ya brung – so I wasn’t too surprised when I saw a few CAT 1 riders at the start. I thought it’d be fun to see how I stack up with them. At about 10am we were off. I settled into about mid pack going into the first singletrack…and I pretty much stayed there the whole race. Most of the race I was by myself. During the 6th and 7th lap I passed a few other marathoners, two were on the same lap and a few others I think were a lap or two down. I felt awesome through the whole thing.

My lap times were pretty consistent, only dropping a couple minutes in the last 2 laps vs. the first 2. I set out to do at least 6 laps and I finished with 7 – I was smiling all the way through, hitting the downhills just as hard on the 7th lap as I did on the first lap. I stayed fueled and hydrated perfectly. With all the climbing here (which there was surprisingly a good amount of), one full 70oz. Camelback I emptied just after finishing my last lap.

My pedal strokes have been sort of choppy this year…but I found a rhythm during the last hour of this race. Regardless of speed my pedal cadence got smooth…aha! Smooth is fast ;) I had been repeating this in my head through most of the race regarding the singletrack downhills…but it wasn’t until the last 2 or 3 laps when the fatigue started to settle in that my brain applied it to my pedal strokes. This was key.

I love marathon mountain bike races!!!

Race Report: Mont Du Lac - Mud, Sweat, Gears…

Riding last weekend was pretty amazing. I drove to Golden Valley on Friday night, and packed up the car Saturday morning with a couple good friends and blasted up to Duluth. We stoped at Mont Du on the way hoping the trail would look rideable. Splashing through the puddles in the car on the road leading up to it we quickly realized this was probably a bad plan. We drove into West Duluth and unloaded the car at Haines and Skyline Pkwy. Too bad it was so foggy so the spectacular views were hidden, but awesome riding nonetheless! We made our way up the Skyline a few times going down towards the water and then back up. I wish I had those kinds of hills to ride all the time!

On the way back to the car along the boardwalk, the rocky beach was too tempting, I had to ‘ride the surf’ of Lake Superior.We also had to ride over the lift bridge to Park Point…I mean walk our bikes over the bridge……we definitely did not ride them over the bridge…of the hundreds of times I’ve been to Duluth, I think I’ve only been to Park Point in a car. It was really fun to see it from this perspective!

We loaded up on some carbs at Belisios in Canal Park after the ride…this place was really good but maybe a little too upscale for those just coming off a three hour mountain bike tour of Duluth. The hostess ‘suggested’ we sit in the bar area, haha!
Sunday morning driving to Mont Du for John and Mat to tear up the Citizen class…the ground did not look ‘tacky’ as some had hoped and predicted. This race turned out to be the muddiest event I’ve ever done. John’s first mountain bike race hardly turned out to be that! More of an adventure race is what it was. By the time the Comp/Expert classes lined up at 1, I figured either the Citizen/Sport riders will pack it down (like the first MNMBS race at Salem) or chew it up even more. Unfortunately…it was the latter. Ridiculous amounts of mud stuck to everything. By the time I figured out the best way to go about this race I was halfway through the first lap. I sped up fast running the bike, riding the bike, carrying the bike – momentum, steady, and staying committed was key. I started to pass lots of riders and I was feeling really good. I rode most of the second half of the first lap.

I took the now shredded grassy hill before the road climb to clear off as much mud as possible while staying in a forward motion preparing for lap 2 (final) to really gung ho and figured I could drop at least 15 and maybe 20 minutes from what I did the first lap…yep that’s how unprepared I was for this type of race at the start. I felt strong. Up the road real steady, almost to the top, and ‘clink’ my cranks lock. I get off check the bike, spin them backwards andthey started working. Start going again, then the same thing 100ft further. I tried it two more times, basically I was going to have to run/carry my bike the entire second lap or risk breaking lots of stuff. I decided to call it…along with about 50% or more of the field. I love a challenge and I really got myself amped up for the second lap, so that was a bit frustrating. All in all, I feel it made me a better, more confident, rider technically and I did have a lot of fun.

John and Mat solved nothing in their Giant Anthem vs. NRS battle – so the yapper flappin for the two and half hour drive back to GV was very entertaining. That will be fun to watch at Mankato on the 27th.

TEVA Games - Sunday

After a good 9 hours of sleep, I woke up and met TJ and Chloe Forsman in the parking lot of the hotel. Luckily they had some extra food I could have for breakfast because the breakfast at the hotel was...well...there was no breakfast offered, I was not aware of that. Chloe was gearing up for, and which turned out to be, an awesome race in the road TT event. I'd like to try a TT sometime...actually any road race for that matter. TJ and I had other things planned for the morning. Apparently we didn't get enough of all the climbing in the race on Saturday so we decided we needed to go all the way to the top today.

TJ had a good run in the Pro race on Saturday and my race was good overall so we were both pumped to find some great riding in Vail that was not part of the race course. We followed a route called the Village Trail which was essentially a service road that wound its way to the top of the mountain, higher than racealtitude, and ended at the Eagles Nest where the people that took the gondola up getting off. Our ride up took about an hour and we had a spectacular view of the snow capped mountains above the bright green spring grasses. It was a perfect day for this!

Then from here comes the downhill. The maintenance guys on the way up gave us the advice we wer looking for "the trails are there...the top parts might be somewhat covered in snow and some might have signs that say 'Do Not Ride'...but...just go around the signs." We grabbed a trail map at Eagles Nestand headed back towards the Village - the fun way ;) We had to 'one foot in and one foot out' through parts of the trail with snow to start but after a 1/4 mile in it was clear. We were able to bomb some sweet gnarly decsents with a little air here and there and some near vertical rooted and rocky chutes to blast down and pass the 'Do Not Ride' signs into some tight but flowing berms that were just awesome! I did not know that Vail had mtn bike trails like this! About 2 1/2 hours after we started the ride we get back to the parking ramp in the village.

I met up with Mom and had lunch at Blue Moose Pizza in the Lionshead Village (which is an amzaing area of Vail). After this...I had to drive from Vail back to Omaha. Should've been about a 9 hour drive total which would have put me back by Midnight or 1AM. Well...this was in my way...I took this picture with my phone going down the highway. It touched down almost directly over the highway I needed to be on...approximately 12 hours of driving later I finally roll back to my place at 5AM. Crazy drive!!

TEVA Games - Saturday

A couple stories one for each day about this weekend so I'll make two entries. First, I gotta say my calendar is already marked for next year at these games. This was an awesome event! Vail was packed with so many athletes competing in so many different events, it was really fun.

My mom came with on this little trip, so it was great to have her there to see this. We got to Vail before noon and my race wasn't for another four hours, but with all the excitement, I still forgot to eat enough. I remembered about an hour and a half before that I still hadn't yet, so I hit up a couple different Bear Naked cereal tents for some "samples".

Walking through the village we saw some of the kayak freestyle, some slope style practice, and right near the XC race start they were holding the "Eukanuba Dock Dog" competition which was a real crowd pleaser and super fun to watch!

At the start of my race I was towards the back of the wave when the gun went off...starting on a loose over hard pack slightly downill sprint before the first steep power climb I rocketed past about 30-40 riders into 5th place without much effort.

Into the first climbs things were going well and I'm on the wheel of 4th place when "snap" HE busts his chain on a second steep power climb just about 5 minutes into the race...I was too close to him, he lost balance and rolled back into me while about 15-20 riders go by and I'm trying not to flip over backwards on this mountain. I got going again but, my rhythm was busted. I forgot the elevation factor and tried going hard to get back up where I was. It took too much effort and I had only gone past maybe six or seven racers in 20 minutes before I realized how much extra effort I was putting in...and we were still climbing up and up and up.

It was too late, I blew myself up bad and drifted back. The second lap I stayed more consistent and got a few guys but I didn't place where I think I could have. I forgot how much the elevation can affect performance when at that altitude and level of effort. Oh well though, no big deal.

Regardless of my finish it was an awesome course and an awesome race. It's been awhile since I raced on a mountain course like this...2008 Angel Fire maybe? The Santa Cruz Superlight worked great and the rough downhills were a blast - I was ear to ear smiles on that!!

This was going on Saturday night during the concert and festival throughout Vail Village...night time freestyle kayaking is pretty cool ;)

Dialed in!

I used Betasso Preserve today in Boulder as kind of a "test course" to dial in the new setup. After about 90 minutes, several different combinations of handlebars/stems and shock/fork air pressure adjustments, I think I got it. Race tomorrow at 3:45pm. Excited for the first race back on a full suspension 26er! Not much time to feel the bike since it was just finished yesterday (thank you Bike Way!), but it will be a fun race no doubt regardless!

Betasso Preserve is actually the course I cut my teeth on for mountain biking during the summer of 2004...ahhh memories of riding the granny ring here. I dusted off the Iguana that I'd put maybe 50 miles on since 2001 and brought it with me when I spent the summer in Longmont working for Transwest at a trailer shop.

Now mostly in the big ring here...reminds me of how much has changed! Not just changed in biking, but how life has changed period.

TEVA Games in Vail it is!

I decided on Vail for the TEVA Games MTB race this weekend. With all the other outdoor sports competitions going on during this festival, it should be a great time! I've always wanted to race here, so no better time than now.

Last Saturday afternoon I picked up a Stans ZTR Race 7000 wheelset and these things are LIGHT! 1,208 grams for the set! Of course, these are 26" wheels ;) Coupled with the Santa Cruz Superlight frame and the rest of the parts I'm getting (hopefully today!) the bike should actually be within one pound of the weight of my Orbea...except now with full suspension.

So yep I have a bike build this week before I pack up the car again.

5hrs 18 mins, 80+ miles, 7000ft of climbing...

...on the road bike in the mountains of Colorado between Boulder, Longs Peak, and Lyons. Longest ride to date! It was pretty spectacular though. I've always wanted to ride from Boulder to the Longs Peak trailhead and this past Sunday I finally could check that one off.

Starting in Boulder I headed up 36 to Lefthand Canyon Dr. then off through Jamestown. It was pretty mild grades climbing until then. It was here that I was glad I kept my own pace with the bigger picture of the ride in mind, cause this was tough! A few riders that passed me earlier stalled out only a few miles past Jamestown. One lady that stopped was still catching her breath when I went back by her and she was able to muster the words to me “This is one helluva hill!” I was in 2nd gear for most of it.

Once I crested the climb I kept going to reach the Peak-to-Peak. This meant a few miles on dirt roads…on the road bike. “Whoa! This is new!” There were several shorter power climbs and descents which can be a little sketchy with tires at 100psi and about a 1/8th inch contact patch! I finally made it to the highway and that was rolling ups and downs until Hwy 7. Left is Longs Peak…right is Lyons and a different way back to Boulder. I go left and start climbing again. I passed by the awesome old church and grabbed a couple pics. Eight miles and lots of lower gear climbs later I finally reached Longs Peak Road. This was toughest because the grades get very large again and I’m above 9,000 feet. Keeping a smooth steady cadence I was able to power up it and reach the parking lot and ranger station. YES! …I had a strange urge to want to start hiking…as exhausted as I was I really wanted to and if I had some hiking boots I probably would have.

After a short conversation with the ranger about climbing LP, I headed back. Mostly downhill, I headed back going through Lyons this time. Highway 7 was mostly wide open big ring 25 – 45 mph, awesome awesome stuff ;) I also got into a draft with a couple other riders that kept us going very high speeds for a long time. Once I got back to the car…I was spent, feeling really good about the ride but being in the saddle that long takes its toll. Nothing but smiles on my face after that though, it was absolutely amazing.